Justice. TotalEnergies in court on June 5 to defend itself against greenwashing

Has TotalEnergies been making itself out to be greener than it is? The oil and gas group will have the opportunity to answer this question on June 5th before a civil court, during an unprecedented legal debate on the climate promises of a major energy company. Three NGOs—Greenpeace France, Friends of the Earth France, and Notre Affaire à Tous—sued the French group in March 2022 before the Paris Judicial Court for "deceptive commercial practices" due to claims suggesting the group could achieve carbon neutrality while continuing to produce oil and gas.

The associations are challenging advertising and communications messages disseminated from May 2021, particularly on its website, in the press, and on social media. At the time, Total had changed its name to TotalEnergies to emphasize its investments in renewable energy. TotalEnergies then promoted its goal of "carbon neutrality by 2050," often adding "together with society," and touted gas as "the fossil fuel that emits the least greenhouse gases."

The major "should not be able to disseminate these claims to consumers, which are contrary to reality: its strategy of expanding fossil fuels is clearly contradictory to the scientifically based challenge of immediate and massive reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and reduction of the use of fossil fuels," Greenpeace emphasizes.

For years, lacking a clear framework and specific standards, companies have communicated extensively about their environmental policies, claiming carbon neutrality or using vague terms like "green," "sustainable," or "eco-responsible." This has prompted climate activists to take legal action to try to establish a precedent on "greenwashing," or claiming to be more virtuous than one actually is, through consumer law.

In Europe, courts have already fined KLM for greenwashing in 2024, and Lufthansa last March. In France, the procedure, based on a European directive on unfair commercial practices, is unprecedented for TotalEnergies and the hydrocarbons sector, according to Greenpeace.

According to Apolline Cagnat, Greenpeace's legal officer, TotalEnergies' communications misled consumers into believing that "by purchasing TotalEnergies products, they are participating in a virtuous circle without being able to realize that in reality" the group's investments and production are "largely based on fossil fuels," oil and increasingly gas, which it presents as an alternative to oil and coal.

According to Greenpeace, the court will "rule, in an unprecedented international manner, the legality of advertisements presenting gas as an energy essential to the transition," despite its climate impact, which is contested by climate experts due to its methane leaks, which have a very warming effect on the atmosphere. The carbon footprint of liquefied natural gas (LNG) can rival that of coal in some cases, several studies have shown.

As for TotalEnergies' "carbon neutrality" objective, the group is making it conditional on "society," meaning the countries where it operates, imposing a move away from fossil fuels. Without this, TotalEnergies does not intend to stop its hydrocarbon activities. "TotalEnergies will be able to demonstrate how our company's communications, regarding its name change, its strategy, and its role in the energy transition, are reliable and based on objective and verifiable data," the group stated, emphasizing that it is "implementing its strategy in concrete terms (investments, new businesses, significant reduction in direct greenhouse gas emissions, etc.)."

The associations are asking the court to "order the immediate cessation, subject to a penalty, of deceptive commercial practices" and "the inclusion of informative statements in the group's commercial communications" related to its climate commitments. If this were the case, it would send a "strong signal" to companies that exploit fossil fuels, Apolline Cagnat emphasizes. TotalEnergies is also the subject of a criminal investigation opened in Nanterre in 2021 for "deceptive commercial practices" following a complaint from associations.